Revision of FEMA regulations

RBI has revised nine regulations issued under the FEMA Act 1999 which will be effective on the date of their publication in the Gazette of India. As per RBI communiqué, with the revision of the regulations, the respective original notifications and subsequent amendments stand repealed. It is further informed in the communique that the revised regulations will carry the same numbers as in the old regulations but with a suffix ‘(R)’ along with the year in which they are published. It is learnt from the sources that the AP (DIR Series) Circulars in respect of seven of the nine revised regulations are being issued on February 4, 2016, and related Master Circulars are also updated and are available with RBI websites.

The Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA) came into force from June 1, 2000 with 25 original notifications. However, during the past 15 years there were over 330 amendments to the FEMA regulations taken place to address the changing practices in cross-border transactions from time to time relating to external trade and payments.